It’s impossible to ignore the ramifications of what happened. One indirect consequence of Piquet’s crash was Ferrari’s botched pit stop for Felipe Massa, which cost him a likely race win. That could even have changed the outcome of the world championship.

However even if the points from Singapore are re-distributed, Lewis Hamilton will remains the 2008 drivers’ champion and Ferrari the 2008 constructors’ champions.

But the full scale of the punishment could be far greater than just the loss of a race victory. We could be looking at a fine comparable to McLaren’s $100m penalty in 2007, or a one-year ban such as that handed down to the Toyota rally team in 2002.

What do you think should be the consequences for Renault? Will they be racing at next weekend’s second Singapore Grand Prix?

Update: The Daily Mail has leaked the FIA documents on Renault in full. Here’s links to all of them:

not a good day. i think renault should be fined very heavily…or offered a less heavy fine but on condition of selling the team. this way renault are punished but the team is still able to race next season, one way or another.
also on an old post, cant remember if it was a comment or part of an article, it was mentioned that mclaren didnt pay the full 100mill fine, can someone explain this or post the link?
you wouldnt want to shake hands with these people.

Here is what I think should be the penalty 75 million fine. Win Resended (I know wont happen). Renault is stripped of all constructor points and driver points for the year. If both drivers knew both suspended (Alonso). Poor Romain Grosjean got to be thinking what did I get my self into.

There will be no further real punishment to Renault. Rather than observing the precedent set by the exclusion of the Toyota rally team in 95 I think that the FIA will observe the precedent set by the Lewis Hamilton ‘liegate’ scandal – a suspended ban.

The fact is that this case had no moral imperative from the start and it has achieved its goal already. Max has his man.

What about the McLaren ‘spygate’ affair in 2007? That was the closest precedent. If Renault get off simply because Max has succeeded in pushing out Flav, the punishments will be inconsistent. And we all know how much we love that.

Sometime ago I put forward the suggestion that the use of a Safety Car distorted results by closing everyone up and potential winners being hounded by the ones they had left behind. Why the officials cannot use the existing technology to stop all the cars at the time of the accident ( no pit stops allowed) and then restart the field with the pre stoppage time intervals being used is a mystery. There obviously has to be some refinement to this idea but in the Singapore case- it would have stopped any of this current upheaval.
I have mixed feelings about Alonso. I didn’t like his whining attitude when he was with Maclaren and it does seem strange that he seems to be involved whenever there is a problem. As someone has said _ Good Luck Ferrari.

Incredible…almost too much to take in. Very, Very sad day in F1. Have races been manipulated before? Has F1 turned into professional wrestling?
Couple questions:
Will Flav and Symonds be able to return to F1? This statement seems to say they have “stepped down”. Not been banned.
Also, do you think somewhere Max Mosley is smiling? Before he left he was able to get rid of Ron Dennis and maybe now Flavio Briatore, (although perhaps Flav on his own accord). What else happens before his term is up?

To all those who are trying to drag Alonso into this fiasco, let me remind you of one fact, Alonso didn’t need to win that race, rather it was Renault that stood to gain. Alonso wasn’t in contention for the drivers championship, neither did he need the extra money a win might bring.
RenaultF1 stood to benefit in the long term from that win, as it would bolster their long term prospects. In all, Symonds and Flavio may just as well have been happy to ask Alonso to crash into the wall and give Piquet the win. It wasn’t the driver winning that mattered, it was the car.

By the way, I’ve never been a keen fan of Alonso, but I can’t stand stupid assumptions. The fact a cat has wet paws doesn’t mean it ate the gold fish. :-)

I’m sure you’re right a double world champion would have no desire to win a race would he? I’m sure he’s perfectly happy to stroll around at the back of the grid and take no part in the action. I’m not saying he is involved but it’s silly to say he didn’t need to win the race so he must be innocent…

I am saying it wasn’t worth it for Alonso to be party to this. But for the management of RenaultF1, it was worth taking such a gamble.
It makes more sense to tell Piquet, crash the car cause we win and Renault will commit to F1 and you can drive for us still, than to tell him to crash the car so Alonso will win and look a far better driver than you.

What we know of what happened so far points to the fact that no-one who didn’t need to know about the conspiracy knew. The documents linked to in the article claim Piquet Jnr, Symonds and Briatore were in the meeting, and not Alonso. And you have to ask yourself, why would Alonso need to know?

I hope now Barricello and Button take revenge and say a lot of bad things about cheater Flavio.
Funny he said his drivers are the best and brawn pair is retired drivers, and we have seen who is winning, fast and talented (Brawn drivers) and who is winning with the help of cheating (Alonso).

Also what about the criminal case filed against Piquet, now the police will come to arrest piquet but will take two disgraceful crowns britore and symonds with them. I think the criminal case thing was a last effort by these two to scare Piquet. They must have threatened Piquet and his father verbally many times.
Flavio and Symonds deserve some big Punishments, at least for not caring about Safety of anybody.

Now everybody who was pushing Piquet down the hill… think again. YES the race WAS FIXED! Yes it was those two cheaters up there that order Piquet Jr. crash. Of course some people will always say – I didn’t have to do it… Remember who the boss is. The boss orders, you do it, or get canned… But the most extraordinary thing about all this is that nobody talks about the one who really gain for the race fix cheating – FERNANDO ALONSO… Will we slip by without a scratch… Is he already under Ferrari protection, so FIA can’t touch him? He’s a cheater too – NEVER FORGET THAT ! It was Alonso who desperately need a win, not Renault… A word from Alonso to Flavio, from Flavio to Pat, the meeting with Piquet Jr. and it was in the sac. Crash after Fernando leaves the pits, on a place were there were not means of retrieving the car, safety car comes in… all the other had to come into the pits because they would be out of fuel. Race win to Alonso! Genial! That shows, for sure the spaniard character… a pig, a coward that would do everything to his neighbor if is makes him a step higher… HE makes me sick…

Your logic makes you sick. This is the same kind of mentality that puts lots of innocent people in jail. I’m not saying Alonso is innocent, but from the evidence Alonso stood little to gain from it all and didn’t have to be a party to it.

Well dont know what to make of this scandal – but no one departs any job meekly unless there was evidence of cheating/admission to the board? – so they were given garden leave and escorted of the premises – sad and bad for all the people at renault left to face the music or lose their jobs ps alaonso did acknowledge it was the safety car that won him the race as to being in the know?

I wish Massa could be made champion Joe but it won’t happen. A brilliant season has been tainted.
I know a lot of people have strong feelings regarding Alonso but we don’t know the evidence and if he even knew.

Lets make sure 2010 will be an interesting season: Jean Todd becomes FIA president. Briatore gets a gig as Ferrari boss and brings the old Benetton technical clud with him: Symonds, Brown, Coughlan and Stephney. And to wrap things up, Schumacher and Alonso make the driver’s line up? Looking good? Not yet, we need a side kick: bring Ron Dennis back to Mclaren.

Please don’t tell me you really want Todd to be the next Hitler at FIA Headquarters… If we ALL complain about all the wrong thing done my Mosley – be sure – Todt will do worst in half the time – that man is natural born dictator – team will never have any control about rules, etc, decisions will be really bad and bias…